Lunar Ronin

It wasn't due to mismanagement. Endgame was the entire design focus of World of Warcraft. It was very much intentional. The designers and original pre-alpha testers were all very raid focused in EverQuest. It was all they really cared about. So that's what World of Warcraft was built around.

I contemplated placing this thread in the Suggestions & Feedback sub-forum, but it's more of a discussion because odds are none of the following will ever be implemented. How to bring balance to the Force Homecoming: Procs: Revert the proc system back to what it was on live, a flat percent chance. On top of that, make damage procs respect AT damage modifiers, and respect damage buffs and damage debuffs. Limit the /ah command to game masters only. Lower the in-game e-mail storage back down to 20 like it was on live. Make non-weapon ranged damage power set nukes crash again. Restrict the Alpha Incarnate ability's +1 level shift to Incarnate content only. Limit the Interface, Judgment, Destiny, Lore, and Hybrid Incarnate abilities to Incarnate content only. Raise the Controller ranged damage modifier to match Defender at 0.65. The hardest part of the list: Re-balance the Mastermind AT so minion and lieutenant henchmen are equal level to the Mastermind PC. Implementing all of the above suggestions would make Homecoming a much more balanced game, and bring more value to all roles and functions in the game, instead of the current damage meta to the exclusion of all else.

Except it's not just influence. In Praetoria, it's information. Information can be freely traded. In the Rogue Isles, it's infamy. You can get some infamy just by joining a notorious supergroup.

I very much realize that Defenders, Tankers, and to a lesser extent Corruptors and Controllers can build for both procs and defense. However, you're not doing that on... say... a Blaster or a Stalker. It's either one, or the other. The ones that choose procs? Yeah, they're either using inspirations, or they exclusively team and rely on buffs and Barrier Destiny. And agreed that that procs and relying on inspirations for defense and/or resistance are separate issues, but they are very much linked. But that's not the only reason why I don't use proc bombs. Procs Per Minute is an inherently and fundamentally broken system. By all accounts, it was going to be scrapped and replaced before Issue 24 went live. Players are penalized for slotting recharge in powers, and/or using Alpha abilities that boost recharge. That's extremely counter intuitive and stupid. Damage procs ignoring damage debuffs means that is one less tool in a Homecoming writer's kit as it makes damage debuffs by NPCs pretty useless. Damage procs ignoring damage buffs screws the Brute AT. Damage procs let ATs that were intended for low damage (Controller, Defender, etc.), step on the toes of ATs designed for higher damage, (Corruptor, Blaster, etc.), further making a mess of AT balance. Related to the first bullet, the whole PPM system is counter-intuitive and opaque. Players have to know that pseudo pets are bad for procs. Then they have to know which powers use pseudo pets. Then they have to know that slotting recharge is bad. How in the blue blazes is this a good system? It isn't. The proc system should be completely overhauled from scratch. Heck, revert to the system we had on live. It was better than PPM.

It was lowered back in October when the Code of Conduct was last updated, without much fanfare. People only started recently noticing with the spike from the Page 2 release. From what I've been told by friends that play on Excelsior, the number of accounts on Excelsior before server queues start was lowered as well, to 1,200. Can't say for sure on that latter one.

Beam Rifle is one of my favorite power sets, but it's not for everyone. It's one of the worst power sets for AoE damage, but also one of the best for single target damage. Its specialty is in taking down bosses and above. There's a reason why most of the Really Hard Way badge runs back on live were mostly comprised of Beam Rifle Corruptors. As for the sounds, yeah I don't care for those either, but they can be easily modded. I use the Beam Rifle Movie SFX mod. It sounds pretty good.

It's been discussed a lot over the past five years or so, on both here and on the Homecoming Discord server. It was a fringe thing back in 2019 and 2020, but started picking up steam in 2021 or so. It's gotten to the point now that a lot of meta chasers believe it to be the norm and talk down to those who build for personal defense. It's definitely no secret, not anymore, and hasn't been for a few years. You just haven't been paying attention. Those are four posts I found just from a very quick search before I have to leave for work. There are plenty more examples, and even more on the Homecoming Discord.

Some people store a significant quantity of large or super purple, orange, or dual purple/orange inspirations in their in-game e-mail, auction house, or both. They keep their supply regularly stocked, and then continuously munch those inspirations as they play to use as their build's defenses and/or resistances, instead of building for them using powers and/or IO set enhancement bonuses. It mostly wasn't possible on live, because to be able to use the /ah command you had to be subscribed for something like seven years straight, which the vast majority of players were not. Also, in-game e-mail was limited to storing twenty messages, not the 150 or something that Homecoming has. It's a practice that I find rather dull, boring, and monotonous. It also was quite clearly never intended, at least not by Paragon Studios.

If this is in regards to General, Help, and/or LFG chat channels, report it. Per Ghost Widower's post linked below, political discussion isn't allowed in those channels. FWIW, I highly recommend just outright removing the General chat channel from your chat tabs. Nothing worthwhile there.

TL;DR: It's a known issue. It's an issue with the server itself, it's hit some sort of resource quota. In the meantime, use imgcdn.dev.

Adding to that, yeah, I second increasing the falloff time for Sonic Dispersion to fifteen seconds to match Force Field.

They get around it by using inspirations as part of their character build. It's a boring, dull practice that simply wasn't possible back on live so I don't consider it a valid playstyle. Sure, inspirations are a tool that should be used, and I do. But using them as part of your character build is like building a house and using hammers as the actual walls.

Error code 200 in IPB (the forum software Homecoming uses), means that the forum is hitting some sort of resource limit on the server it uses itself, so you may not have much choice.

Use imgcdn.dev instead. If you want the picture kept around longer than two weeks, you'll need to create an account but it's entirely free.

Uhhh... what? Stalkers do at least as much single target DPS as Scrappers. Most Scrappers don't have taunt auras either. Some Stalker primaries give up a ton of AoE yes, but not all, and that's what Ball Lightning is for. You're underestimating both Assassin's Strike and Placate. Stalkers are survivable enough. I've done SFs where my Stalker was the only one standing, outlasting a Tanker. If I want just pure melee damage, I play a Stalker. If I want both melee damage and a taunt aura, I play a Brute. There's just no reason for me to play a Scrapper ever, IMO.

Little known fact: Originally, heroes and villains were supposed to have access to the other side's zones, radio/newspaper missions, and TFs/SFs like vigilantes and rogues now. Vigilantes and rogues were supposed to have full access to both sides, including story arcs. However, Paragon Studios could not get it to work, so here we are.

Why wouldn't we? It's not dull and boring, unlike blue side.

It's mostly used by Masterminds as an alternative to Group Fly, but I have seen a couple of non-Mastermind players use it. One took me for a joyride around Skyway City back around 2019 before I started turning that off in addition to Group Fly via Null the Gull.

Yes, but I was specifically responding to the part about people who only play heroes.

Co-op zones would include Striga Isle, Cimerora, RWZ, and Dark Astoria, which would make no sense for Praetorians to have access to as they have not yet crossed over to Primal Earth. Ouroboros was originally limited to Primal Earth only because it was for time travel for Primal Earth. However, SCoRE/Resurgence opened that Pandora's Box by allowing Ouroboros Flashback to Praetorian story arcs, so I could see allowing Praetorians access to Ouroboros, but Ouroboros only. Also, people definitely play gold side. However, they play gold side solo, because teaming gold side is a royal pain in the rear. The original six Praetorian zones were specifically designed for solo play. It's not really meant for teaming. When I play gold side (and I do, frequently), even on Indomitable, I see quite a few other people running by me, or training... but we're all just ships passing each other in the night. None team. That's just the way gold side is, and that's the way it will always be. Regarding Incarnate slots and abilities, Praetorians can do Incarnate trials. The only limitation there is the other players. I know that Incarnate trials are overwhelmingly formed in Ouroboros on the Excelsior and Everlasting shards, but that is not the case for the other shards. They're formed in Pocket D and/or Echo Plaza, both of which Praetorians have access to and can join just fine. Blame the players. To be fair, that is entirely on the players who are so limited in view that they focus entirely on heroes and ignore two thirds of the game. There's tons of other content out there, they just completely ignore it. Then get bored and wonder why the game is so easy.

I have no horses in this race, but apparently the Final Fantasy XIV art community is stringently anti-AI and a lot of them are on Bluesky. They were crap talking Homecoming something fierce several months ago over how much AI art is posted on the forums and Discord server, and for allowing AI art at all. A few mentioned that they won't play because of it. So, there is something to that.

Yep, everything is resolved using two tables. There's also a wide spread as it's designed for the DC Comics universe, where you have characters ranging in power from Batman to Cyborg to Superman co-existing. And yes, making your own characters is very easy. There's guides on how to make a street vigilante power level character, a Teen Titans or Legion of Super-Heroes power level character, and a Justice League power level character. Also, the entire DC Heroes product line from the 1980s and 1990s is being reprinted at the end of the year as part of a Kickstarter campaign last year. My wallet still hates me.

32 years after the last edition, and still the best IMO. Also, Mutants & Masterminds 4E was just announced a few days ago.

Group Fly isn't a legitimate complaint. Sure, new players may not know about the ability to disable Group Fly with Null the Gull. The issue is that the biggest complainers about Group Fly are people who have been playing the game for years, if not decades, and know danged well how to disable it. They're just too lazy to do so and think that they shouldn't have to. Not my problem, nor the problem of anyone else using Group Fly.

One Brute and seven Masterminds.